Is Your Boss a Mile Wide and an Inch Deep?
Are you familiar with the phrase “a mile wide and an inch deep”?
In the past years I have been encountering a phenomena in the leadership of many organizations. The leaders have a broad and wide range of passing familiarity with many concepts but they lack depth in any of those concepts. As a result of attempting to lead with only surface knowledge they find themselves in dire straits (great musical group by the way) when application requires depth of expertise.
The strange thing is we as a population have more access to in-depth information on most any than every before. Yet, many leaders satisfy themselves with awareness of the highlights and buzzwords of a concept.
I admit I am a fan the recently antiquated philosophy of Knowledge for Knowledge’s Sake. In fact I wrote an article about it on Rosa Say’s excellent site Joyful Jubilant Learning. But, this goes beyond that concept to shine a light on some critical areas of knowledge deficiency in leadership. While the chapter headings for John Maxwell’s 360 Degree Leader may be embraced the core philosophy of owning leadership is never really embraced.
The only explanation that I find that gives me any satisfaction ironically comes from a fiction book, The Last Angry Man (written Gerald Green sometime in the early 1980’s). The main character, an on the way out “pitch man” focuses a literary lens on the life Brooklyn doctor. In one section of the book the main character is struck by how all the passengers on the train are like junkies “jonesing” for an information fix by of snatches of headlines, billboards, radio commercials, but never anything of substance.
It seems many are looking for a quick information “fix” rather than seeking learning which provides deeper meaning.